I work in a morgue and have a pretty strong constitution, but when I finished Audition, I gave it away to a friend because I didn’t even want the DVD in my house. The way the girl giggles and laughs during her torture really got to me. And the ending to Old Boy ALWAYS makes my jaw drop no matter how many times I see it. I also want to nominate Kathy Bates for being in two of the most disturbing scenes in cinema: the hobbling scene in Misery and her nude scene in About Schmidt. While I applaud her for taking such a risk and letting it all hang out, it was so unexpected that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. If she can get nekkid, what’s Jessica Alba’s damn problem?
I let a friend borrow my “Audition” dvd and I can’t wait to get it back. First, to get his reaction to it ( I can’t wait for the jaw-drop ) and secondly so I can watch it again. That girl was FREAKY! And the first time that big sack moved I nearly shit my pants, and I knew that was coming. I was just so focused on it. Kathy Bates nude?!! That’s the one to get out of the house!!!
I’d have to go with Happiness. Apart from that opening scene (which is brilliant), I don’t think I could stomach any of the rest of it again.
Ditto for Kids, which was such a scam it just made me mad. At least the soundtrack was nice.
Last House On The Left is especially unpleasant.
Koji Wakamatsu’s Go Go Second Time Virgin is pretty seriously rough going, and I understand that by Wakamatsu’s standards, it’s one of the ‘accessible’ ones.
Why not look at the old posts on the same subject? guys don’t be overlooking the other threads. Someone thought of it first.
Did anybody see “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” when it first came out? I saw two versions: the real ending and the ending in the police station where we learn that the government believes our protagonist. The original was scary as hell.
There’s a difference between high camp and scary. Coppola’s Dracula is the former, Deliverance is the latter. When I saw Exorcist I didn’t feel a bit scared just unhappy I paid to sit there. The Innocents is really a very creepy movie and very sexy: watch the face of the nanny when the boy kisses her on the lips. It’s momentary, but the sex is there. And it’s scary.
Just watched Rosemary’s Baby, absolutely horrifying. Although I’ve never seen Salo so on most disturbing film I’m not really competent enough to say other Funny Games or Straw Dogs.
My first viewing of the 1997 Funny Games was particularly unsettling and Holy Mountain also really screwed with my head. I’ve been gearing up with a friend to see Salo since we first read about it in high-school, and I think that is going to happen soon. So I may have to report back.
My MOST disturbing film experience though was when a friend gave a Girls Gone Wild disc after a long-term relationship of mine ended. I watched it and then immediately broke the disc in half.
I reconsidered. The Seventh Continent is probably the most disturbing film I’ve ever seen, but also a favorite extremely close to my heart.
(replying without reading your entries as yet)
Too disturbed by Dead Ringers to sit through it.
Left Straw Dogs a pale shade of green. Was only 17 when I saw it, and when the grim bits came on — absolutely horrifying, sickening to me at the time. Mid-afternoon on a sunny day (in First Year Uni.) Ruined my day, left me “shaken and undone” (recognize the line? hint: song lyric).
The Day of the Locust – loved the book, but watching the cockfight pretty difficult, the mob riot at end – very upsetting.
Most disturbing/scary fiction film recently seen (within last 15 years): The Vanishing, from Nederlands. (Saw at the theatre, but you can check it out right here – it’s in this Library and it is GREAT!)
Also quite disturbed by parts of Amores Perros, by Inarritu.
Have glanced over other remarks.
Reminded therein of very scary Don’t Look Now.
I too was really disturbed by where Requeim for a Dream ended up, but I still rank it as one of my faves – it’s damn well done, and a story that needs telling without pulling punches.
Herzog’s Nosferatu scary/tense in a good way, but I was much disturbed by Even Dwarves Started Small. I barely remember it now however (maybe I blocked it out of consciousness on the way home)
And, yes, Happiness WAS quite an unhappy experience. Good movie, hard on the spirit.
I’d have to say that the next-to-final scene in Full metal Jacket, where the platoon is being cut down by a mysterious sniper and eventually they shoot the sniper, only to discover it was just a little girl… The little girl suffering in pain begs to be killed,… “Kill me” in a freakish whisper. That scene stayed with me for a whole week, i could not even sleep that night.
Teen Witch.
There are 3 films that I remember seeing when i was very young, like 12?~ maybe ever younger and I cab recall them still to this day.
but i can not remember them , but 1, THE DRIVER’S SEAT starring Elizabeth Taylor, just a freaky flick, I remember just being really bothered but it.
i believe the other one was, DEEP RED HATCHET MURDERS
and this flick i saw at a drive-in. where this doctor’s daughter went blind and he kindnapped people and kept them locked up in the basement so he could use there eyes for transplants and they all got out one day and where wondering around with out eyes causeing accients….was freaking me out !
How about Elem Klimov’s “Come and See”? I can surely say that it’s the most powerful film I ever seen. I felt almost hypnotized during the whole time.
The most disturbing film (actually more a clip) I have ever seen was of an unlicensed ‘boxing’ match between Lenny ‘The Guv’nor’ Maclean and ‘Mad’ Gypsy Bradshaw which took place back in the 70s (I think). Made me feel physically sick. Things like The Exorcist or Texas Chainsaw Massacre are just fairy stories. Thought Blair Witch Project was a real disappointment. Whilst not scary, films like Saw and the Hannibal Lector are disturbing because of the thought processes the writers went through – maybe they need some kind of professional help.
But hey! What do I know?
Sexy Beast. Ben Kingsley pissing on the bathroom floor.
“clean, shaven” was quite uncomfortable to watch
“i stand alone” was totally disturbing
“the exorcist” freaked me out when i was a kid, but does nothing to me now
the ending of “twenty-nine palms” was pretty disturbing too
The Shining. No matter how many times I’ve seen it, it still gets to me in no way any other film can. Lately I’ve refused to actually call it a horror film. It really is so much more than that.
When I was younger, I never found The Exorcist to be that scary. But I just watched it not too long ago and it kind of changed the way I felt about it.
Salo.
I recently watched ‘Teeth’ mostly just because I was curious about it. Hands down the most screwed up film I’ve ever seen.
The scariest movies for me are the ones that resemble the Greek tragedies of old. Even if they’re not considered “horror,” these stories are scarier than any demonic possession or slasher in the woods. “Medea”, the story of a wife/mother divorced by her husband for a younger woman and subsequently kills their children, is the scariest play ever. “Oedipus Rex”, a King who unwittingly kills his father and marries his mother, ending the story by pulling out his eyes and exiling himself from Thebes.
In this respect, the scariest movies I’ve seen are:
Oldboy (Korean)
Seven (Fincher)
The Grifters
Last House on the Left
Plus, unrelated, a movie I’ve seen recently is as creepy in the conventional way as any I’ve ever seen. “Devil Doll” — AMAZING
Mamma Mia!
Seriously though…
Irreversible makes me squirm a little.
Scariest… Jesus Camp
OMG. The Vanishing! Seriously disturbing.
dario argento/profondo rosso
Monstergirly, omg yes! That overweight inbred woman blessing the p.a. system and the cardboard cutout of Bush was the scariest thing I’ve seen in a looooong time.
Whatever Happened To Baby Jane.She scares the …. outta me!!!
INLAND EMPIRE: scariest AND most disturbring
THE DESCENT: scariest and/or most disturbing
To Brett Hendricks:
I gotta agree with you. I recently watched “Teeth” after a friend recommended it. Pretty screwed up!
I just got done watching “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of The Marquis de Sade.” (aka “Marat/Sade”) I saw the play many years ago, and found it disturbing. However, I think the clipppings I watched on youtube disturbed me even more!
I think Salo is very disturbing, epsecially the final sequence and the commentary it makes on voyeurism and when you start to think of it from the perspective of spectator theory…pretty disastrous.
I am suprised to find that no one (or perhaps I missed it) wrote of Noe’s Irreversible. I have seen this film many times as I was writing on it for a while, but the most interesting thing that I found was that the first time I saw the film it did not really bother me (I had just had a rather difficult surgery, followed by a traumatic experience) but once I had some time to heal I watch the film again and had an incredibly intense reaction to the film.
Justin Biberkopf
Christopher and Michael, I agree, the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre is still the scariest film for me.
Alan, yes, In a Glass Cage is one of those how-much-can-I-endure films. The scene with the syringe full of gas is very hard to watch.
I thought Straw Dogs was kind of boring and ho-hum when I finally saw it. Now, the ending of Last Exit to Brooklyn — that makes me queasy.